18 Mile Long Run

In the back of my mind, I had hoped to run this one at about 8 min / mile excepting a nasty stretch of roadway called Flamingo Drive at mile 16 which is about a 1/2 - 3/4 mile stretch of uphill nastiness. So how did I do against such goals:

I actually finished at a 7:52 min / mile pace including the nasty hill and even considering the sheets of ice that have encased the sidewalks of Halifax, Nova Scotia. To be truthfull, I ran about 90% of the run on the roads which are in much better shape, but there was about 10% of the run in which running on the aforementioned sidewalks was unavoidable. I felt strong out there today, in fact, I spent much of the time reigning myself in as opposed to trying to keep up to pace. A final aspect of the run that I was especially pleased with was my recovery from the hill climb. My final mile, just after the climb, was actually the fastest split I had today at 7:26 min / mile.

For a while, I was beginning to doubt the supposed benefits of base training that I had heard about as I had  been feeling sluggish in recent days. I must say that this past week, however, has renewed my faith in a period of long and slow runs. 

Day 3 of Marthon Training - All Is Not Right

After an day off yesterday, I ran a tempo run this morning:

2 miles @ 7:50 / mile
2 miles @ 6:29 / mile
2 miles @ 7:50 / mile

I started out in a typical foggy Halifax morning, however, about a mile in it started to pour from the heavens. My running shoes felt like they weighed about 5 pounds each by the end of it. My split times were right about where I wanted to be and I felt comfortable at the pace. I did, however, feel some tightness in my hip and knee which I will get to next.

After running on Wednesday morning, I went for a walk at lunch time as it was a beautiful day. A few minutes into my walk I felt something pop, for lack of a better word, and a sharp pain in my knee. This all went away quickly although I did feel some discomfort in my knee when lifting a box at home later that evening. Anyway, I decided to run this morning to test it out. While I can't say that I felt any real pain during the run, I am feeling some tightness now. I will have to make sure I stretch out well again tonight and re-evaluate from there.

Days 1 & 2 of Marathon Training

Yesterday was Day 1 of my Fall Marathon Training preparation. I ran a 10 minute warm up run and then ran the following intervals:

1600 @ 5:48
1 min Resting Interval
1600 @ 5:55
1 min Resting Interval
1600 @ 6:01
10 min walk cool down

I must say that it was a tough run. I am still suffering from congestion due to a nasty cold I caught just prior to the Johnny Miles 1/2. Right now I have little energy, however, it is good to get the workout completed. For the record, I wanted to run each 1600 at 6:01 or less so I did meet the goal, though it was more difficult than I had envisioned.

Today I ran a 7.5 mile recovery run. Essentially, I am going to complete one run each week in which I simply go out and run without any concern as to what pace I am running. I must say I felt much better today than yesterday.

5 Days and Change

It has been a while since I last posted. The following is a little bit of what has been going on lately and the schedule for this week.

Last week started out a little rough. To start the week I did some 5 x 1K intervals at a track and was WAY slow. I was off my pace by about 10 seconds for each kilometer interval I did. I also began to feel some pain in my right knee again. Ran a slow recovery run on Wednesday and that went ok, however, I did have some discomfort in my knee. I went to see the chiropractor on Wednesday and he declared that all is well - that the knee issue was unrelated to my earlier problem and is just a normal ache.... I guess I am a little sensitive right now.

Friday I went for a Tempo run - 2 miles at easy pace of 8:07 / mile, 3 miles at 6:34 / mile followed by 1 mile at an easy pace of 7:49 / mile. Great run and I hit the splits perfectly. Another easy recovery run of 5 miles @ 8:50 / mile pace on Satureday and finally a longer run of 8 miles at 7:10 / mile on Sunday. I finished a little above 7:10 in this one coming in at about 7:14, but I will take it.

The plan heading into the Johnny Miles 1/2 this week is to do some 400 m intervals tomorrow morning, run a 4 mile recovery run on Wednesday and an easy 3 miler on Friday.

On Sunday, when running the race, I am planning at running 6:50 / mile for the first 3/4 of the race. If I have anything left in the tank after mile 8, I will try to pick it up slightly to see how I can do. The real goal is to see if I can run sub 1:30:00 in this one after having run 1:31:06 in the Blue Nose 1/2 last month.

Post 1/2 - One week

Well, it has been a week since running the Blue Nose Half Marathon and just shy of 3 weeks before running the Johnny Miles Half Marathon. The first week post race had its ups and downs.

On Wednesday, I ran 4 easy miles @ 8:30 min / mile pace just to get my body moving again. It felt pretty good all things considered.

On Friday, I ran a tempo run with a mile @ 8:12 min / mile pace, followed by two miles at 6:52 min / mile, with a mile @ 8:12 min / mile, with another two miles at 6:52 min / mile, finishing with a mile at 8:12. Overall it wasn't a bad run.

Yesterday, I ran a 15 mile long run at 7:39 min / mile pace. For about the first 11 - 12 miles it went pretty well, however, the final 3 miles were pretty tough. I could feel my hamstrings tighten a bit during the run and post run my hamstrings were quite sore - they are today as well. I guess I could be accused of doing too much too soon.

Trying to balance two races of significant distance only one month apart is tough (at least for me) - how much or how little training to do. I think that next year I will refrain from such a schedule. I think people like Frank Shorter and Lasse Viren had it right in training for a limited number of well selected races each year allowing for enough recovery before focusing on the next race. That said, I am going to try and train by feel for the next week or so to ensure my body is completely recovered. As well, I am going to heed my own advice - once finished the Johnny Miles race, I am looking at a 5 K in late July, with perhaps a 10 K in August and finally a marathon in October. The 5 K and 10 K will just be an opportunity to fine tune before the marathon in the Fall with a desire to peak at the marthon.

Disaster???

One of the key elements that has been missing in the limited training that I have had for Sunday's 1/2 marathon is the inclusion of interval training - I only had so much time and coming off of injury did not want to stress my leg too much and so opted for tempo runs. I would have preferred to be doing both each week in addition to a long run, but it wasn't meant to be as I didn't want to put too much pressure on the leg.

Anyway, this morning I decided to throw in a 6 x 400m set of intervals at 1:20 pace to get in some quicker stuff just prior to the race. Not such a good idea - on my last lap I felt a twinge in my knee again. Hopefully, it is something minor. I am going to take it easy for the remainder of this week. I will probably just run an easy 3 miles or so on Friday to see how I feel. Hopefully, this is just a minor tweak and nothing major.

Have you seen this man

Have you seen this man???? If you have, he is the one largely responsible for the existence of this blog. About five months ago, I was leading a normal life... my middle-aged spread comfortably expanding and my former levels of fitness quietly fading away. Anyway, the owner of the face to the left, a man who has run several marathons and whom I have known since childhood, challenged me to train for a marathon and said he would travel to my backyard to pace me for the race. With that, and only 8 weeks to go until the race, I began a crash training regimine to get me to the "Valley Harvest Marathon" in Kentville, Nova Scotia. As luck should have it, I managed to get through my training without injuring myself and true to his word Keith arrived to pace me. Anyway, after running the race, and being humbled by the effort involved, I am now hooked. The goal now is to build up my fitness to a level that our next race together will be just that.... a race rather than a casual jog for my "pacer". So I am using this space to share my thoughts as I begin my training to become a "Marathoner". The hope is that having this little blog will help me stay committed over the months to come, so feel free to come back and see how I am doing as I pile up the miles.